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Djevica part 2

Djevica met Harry in this post, essentially part 1 of a two parter. I didn’t intend it like that, but connection problems and computer problems caused some levels of difficulty for me to get the whole thing out at one time. So, for part 2, we’ll pick it up where Harry met up with Djevica for a further ‘interview’, but Djevica loves to talk, and thus it essentially turned into a monologue. I liked the idea so much that I’ve subsequently edited Harry’s questions out, and rewritten it into a more conversational style (again) that does away with the need for questions inputted. Ultimately, it becomes ‘Djevica’s Manifesto’. Ella.

Some of my work isn’t really suitable for a naturist magazine, because it’s themed and intends to make bold statements. But I can show you Women’s Rights, a work I’ve just done with this magazine in mind, as it shows how I work, and how I think in fairly simple but hopefully powerful terms.

You can see it’s a glamour styled shot, but on closer examination the nude female, who is posed to represent the idealised version of women, by men, is blindfolded and has her mouth taped over. Her voice and her vision are denied in order to present an image palatable to men. It’s a recurrent theme in my work. I don’t really see myself taking a particular feminist stance as much as stating the obvious. A lot of SL has this same idealised vision of what women are. I am not in SL to be a male’s vision of womanhood, but a vision of myself. And that’s not to be an adjunct of an SL male with a virtual relationship. ‘Djevica’ is an extension of me, not a whole new invented alternative persona trying things the real life version wouldn’t try. This (Women’s Rights) is how I see some women in SL.

The next one is ‘Who’s in Control? (No.2)’

What I’m trying to achieve here is the idea that, while men imagine they’re in control of women in SL, they aren’t! The number of women (or men pretending to be women, which is a whole different pyschological set of issues) ‘on the game’ in SL is astounding. But there’s a matter of it being the world’s oldest profession applying itself to being Second Life’s oldest profession too. It is how women can make money to fund their second lives, and we’ve not worked out how to pay builders or doctors in SL yet. Posing in a red light window, the question is asked as to who controls who. And there’s no real, clear answer to that.

I’m Croatian, and some of my work does dwell on our recent history. The wars in various countries near where I live, the images and horrors of those wars. These works are not for SL Naturist, but in a small way I’m trying to make a personal and political statement on a shadow that still hangs over the whole Balkan region. We also see that, in Greece and elsewhere, economic issues create new ‘enemies’, usually immigrants and we live in dangerous, worrying times. My work outside SL is, of course, my main work, but the art created in SL informs what I do in real life and vice versa.

I don’t expect everyone to care or understand, but those who look at images with an artistic eye should hopefully find something in what I do to challenge them.

Unlike others, I don’t sell or reproduce my art. If someone wishes to buy, that’s great, but I could not imagine these being any more than works of one copy. Prints diminish the effect. Art should be unique, even in SL.